@Dan Suicu
Government expenditures never went below the 2008 level for France and 90% of the euro zone countries.In 2009 those expenditures went through the roof. Now, some measures of deficits decreased AFTER 2010, but are still above the levels before 2008. Intersting fact though, lower budget deficits, in 2011 versus 2010 did not bring the euro zone in recession. What happen though was that throughout 2011 most countries in raised taxes. Basically, govenrments in Europe said that they do not want to lower their expenditures but to show lower deficits they raised taxes. Well, 2012 reacted to higher taxes and went back to recession. How I see things is government intervention (higher taxes) not fiscal consolidation is the problem.